


lava

by idontknowhowtoread (heatherpotts)



Category: NormalBoots
Genre: M/M, Nightmare, PeanutButterGamer - Freeform, SpaceHamster - Freeform, accidentally tentacles, edited this like way later bc typos sorry im illiterate, i guess you could imagine them as their skins but for your own safety please Do Not, i hate myself for getting emotional over mcfucking minecraft, i shouldnt talk this much in the tags rip, players are imagined as actually them and not their skins, spacebutter - Freeform, takes place during season 6 finale-ish, this is so sad can we get 100 diamond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 07:24:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14563971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heatherpotts/pseuds/idontknowhowtoread
Summary: Jeff has a nightmare....Maybe it's more than that.





	lava

**Author's Note:**

> read the tags i'm boo boo the fool

Jeff knew he was dreaming.

He remembered getting home, short two members of their party. He remembered going to sleep, still processing everything that had happened. The last place he would want to be was back in the Nether, and yet here he was.

_A nightmare, that's what this is._

If he didn't know any better, everything since Austin and Dodger fell was just a nightmare.

Regardless, he knew this wasn't real.

He laid on his back, the Netherrack strangely comfortable ( _of course, he's really in bed, right?_ ) and dangerously close to the lava. The heat isn't real, but it certainly feels like it, almost as suffocating as the memories brought with it.

He wasn't sure exactly where he was, but it felt familiar. He stared out across the lake of lava, and remembered how close they had gotten. The lake bubbled and popped, the fire around him crackled, the Ghasts cried, but things felt strangely peaceful.

Something: maybe boredom, maybe an attempt to self-harm, or maybe some form of intuition compelled him to move. His arm extended, and his hand dipped into the lava.

No burn. It stung like cold water, but no burn.

Weird, but irrelevant, as a hand reached up to meet his. A hand dripping and sizzling, made of the same liquid as the entire lake, but belonging to someone else. The creature rose above the lava, its eyes empty balls of light, its mouth unhinged and gaping, its intentions unknown.  
He was unrecognizable, but Jeff knew who he was.

_Who he was supposed to, used to be._

  
Jeff wanted to cry.  
The hand became more like a branch, and slowly wrapped around his wrist. His heart was pounding, _he knew that was real,_ but he was powerless to stop it.  
Jeff closed his eyes.  
The thing hummed and hissed strangely, its limb creeping up his arm, stinging and bruising more than just that. Jeff reminded himself that this was a dream, that it wasn't real, but he couldn't stop what he was feeling.

Maybe it was a panic attack,

or a heart attack,

definitely some kind of attack.

He couldn't breathe

or move

or think about anything but him.

Who was this, really?

  
"Jeff, look at me."

  
It was Austin's voice, but somewhat distorted. Stitched together, unnatural. Jeff didn't open his eyes, but he knew _they_ were there too.

Austin, Dodger and McJones, or whatever was left of them, immortalized in lava. A tragic fragment of a memory, forced to be living as these broken demons trapped in Jeff's mind. He was trapped in his own mind too.

Jeff couldn't breathe. Even if he had something to say to it, to them, he couldn't.

It didn't feel like a dream anymore.

_If Todd was somehow involved with this-_

  
A shockwave of pain scorched his chest, his entire body tensing, and his thoughts were dragged back to Austin. He hated only being able to think about Austin right now.

Of course, he wasn't the only one they had lost, _but..._  
He couldn't tell if the pressure on his chest was from being unable to breathe or something else. _Probably both._

  
"Jeff, please," It pleaded, an empty sound.

  
The tears almost started, and he opened his eyes, but he looked away from the thing on top of him. _Not-Austin,_ he decided to call it.

Tendrils of lava wrapped all around him, stinging like needles, but never burning.

If he wasn't busy trying to wake up and make it all go away, he would have been wondering exactly why that was. They wrapped around him so tightly that they nearly cut through the skin. They crushed his chest, closed his throat, but Jeff wouldn't, _couldn't_ acknowledge it.

If it killed him, it would be a relief, but he knew it wouldn't.

It must have been a dream thing, something you just sort of _know,_ something to remind him this _mostly_ wasn't real, but he knew it wouldn't kill him.

Part of him wanted it to, but he knew it could strangle him all it wanted. Death, true death, eluded them both.

He was trapped here.

They were both trapped here.

He couldn't quite see with his tears in the way and redness blurring the edge of his vision, but he forced himself to look at the thing. He saw Not-Austin, straddled across his stomach, with tendrils of lava coming from his arms and legs-

But looking much more human now.

Almost how he remembered him. _Almost..._

 _Surely,_ still a husk of the Austin he knew, but… _Easy enough on the eyes, right?_

_As long as you can overlook the eyes and the tentacles and shit._

_Still… Is this another dream thing?_

Dodger and McJones were somewhere on the edge of his vision, probably helping hold him down, but he could only stare at Austin.

  
_Fuck, Not-Austin. Not-Austin._

  
The liquid noose around his neck pulled him forward, bringing him face to face with Not-Austin. Jeff had no choice but to stare, to marvel at how closely the creature resembled the real Austin. No choice but to remember how it had been much too long since they last touched, and of course now they were in the _endgame,_ Austin had already _ended,_ and hiding behind Jeff's fear and suffering was a sense of desperation, one that welcomed the lookalike Austin.

_It’s so close._

_So close, save the eyes._

Besides those chaotic, violent, blinding balls of light,

_It's all so familiar._

  
Not-Austin pulled him even closer.  
_Its kiss felt the same._

  
Jeff gasped against its lips, breathing it in, newly free hands flying to hold them together.

One hand around its waist, one in its hair.

_So fucking familiar._

_Dream thing or not._

  
When the pain went away, Jeff almost missed it.  
Not(?)-Austin pulled away, blankly watching Jeff catch his breath.

His tears could fall freely now, with the air to support it and having finally understood the situation they were in. Maybe _(probably)_ it was another dream thing, but be it deception or not, Jeff understood.

  
"Kill it," Not-Not-Austin said, the pain behind his words somehow breaking through the distortion.  
Jeff still couldn't speak.  
"Kill the Wither."  
Jeff could feel his breath being taken away yet again, a slightly different kind of pressure pushing against his ribcage.

Still fueled by heartbreak, passion, violence and recklessness, but now- _what's the word?_

 

_…_

 

_Determination? No, not quite. We had that already._

_Retribution? No, it’s not like the Wither did this._

 

_…_

 

_Love?_

_Close enough._

  
The tendril that used to be around his neck retracted, and became more like a hand again. It brushed against Jeff's cheek, the sting leaving a bright, gleaming mark before slowly fading back to normal.

  
_"I love you."_

 

Those words came through undistorted.

  
Jeff woke up before he could respond.  
The first thing he did was trace the mark on his face Austin left.

The second thing he did was rally himself and his friends, finally ready to kill the Wither.  
He was ready,  
and even if he died trying,  
Austin would be waiting for him.

_Do it for him._

 


End file.
